Thursday, October 30, 2008

Birth Control: Voting Green

Olive S. Oyl here! C'mon, all that talk about makin' first moves? I had to do my duty...

There's no doubt that access to safe, effective contraception is a green issue. I won't get into population control (leaving that to Arduous!) or greener sex toys (thanks, Crunchy!). But did you know that most voters (even pro-life voters) support access to birth control, even as legislators running for office try to have your health insurance leave your pills out in the cold? I bet every woman reading this has had to pocket uncovered birth control expenses, from (hormone-altering) pills to (copper) IUDs. Yet cost is the least of our worries. Check out this eye-opening article at the Huffington Post from yesterday:

"Polls taken by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association found that even 80% of self-described "pro-life" voters support access to contraception. Opposition to contraception is the mark of extremism. Yet, to appease their fundamentalist "pro-life" base that vehemently opposes contraception, many elected officials Members of Congress have voted against access to contraception.

And so in 2008 pro-choice candidates have begun to paint those who oppose contraception as extremists. This election cycle marks the first time since the legalization of contraception that access to birth control has become a campaign issue. In tight races, the issue may prove decisive." (Cristina Page gives a lowdown in this post about the House, Senate, and gubernatorial races in which birth control's become a major issue).

In my view, the debate should be beyond access to safe birth control and on to developing better birth control...we can send a man to the moon but don't have infallible ways to prevent STDs, pregnancy, and create world peace without mood-and-water-altering hormones? Let's all vote next week in ways that will shift the debate back where it belongs: to the common ground shared by the 80% of us who want women to have access to birth control.

9 comments:

Thanks Olive for taking the time to discuss this important topic! You'd think health insurance would be more than happy to cover $15 of pills or a $500 IUD as that is significantly less expensive (even over 20 years) than one VAG Birth!!! Ridiculous.

Another serious issue here in Colorado right now is Amend. 48 on our State Ballot that is attempting to define a fertilized egg (even 10 secs after it happens) as a human being. If passed it is expected that this could be used to try to outlaw the Pill, IUDs, etc. because they simply prevent fertilized eggs from implanting! I cannot believe that my simple IUD (which is also very green as I don't get visits from Aunt Flo) could be "murder" or "illegal."

Wow! I had no idea that my choices with respect to family planning would be taken away. I rather thought that my right to plan my family was my right and not anyone else's to define.

I am heading over the edge of 40 so I could simply have surgery without too much agonizing but what would you do if you were 20, married and had several years before you you wanted to children. I guess condoms will be making a comeback?

I agree with everyone! The math on this issue seems simple: cheaper to cover access to birth control.

@Green Me - tx for the lowdown about Colorado - amazing stuff on the ballot, indeed. Love IUDs - especially the copper ones - but on our local moms listserv LOTS of ppl comment that they aren't covered. $500 is significant barrier (heh heh) to contraception.

@billie I so hear you about life stages - I myself am heading twds 40 and agree that contraceptive choices are dramatically diff depending on one's age - which is why we need to preserve a variety of options. Condoms included. But not limited to them...

I certainly think we should have free access to birth control, although it's worth pointing out that contraceptives that contain hormones do enter into streams, other animals, etc. and may be screwing up nature as a result (in addition to the other many chemicals we allow to screw up nature). Maybe condoms, or an improvement on condoms, is the direction we should be headed towards.

@electronic goose crunchy chicken's recent post on birth control touched on this in the comments -- I 100% agree that hormone altering birth control's not desirable *for me* but 100% effective birth control's an outcome that trumps many other considerations, imho. If you're not talking about disease prevention, the copper IUD is a good bet. My prob with condoms is they are a)not effective enough and b)disposable as well. Surely someone can come up with better solutions that don't threaten either women's health or the environment....